Network operators have identified optimization as one of their top requirements Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN), “NGMN Top OPE Recommendations”, NGMN, September 2010, for increasing operational efficiency. Oyman, O. & Singh, S., “Quality of Experience for HTTP Adaptive Streaming Services”, IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 50, no. 4, pp. 20-27, April 2012 pointed out that Quality of Experience (QoE) aware adaptation at radio and network level in mobile networks is required for end user service session optimization, and that current approaches do not address this problem. Consider an end user service session on a given User Equipment (UE) running in a cell in a Mobile Broadband Access Network. The context of that service session has three important aspects. Each cell has its own unique radio context: its physical topology, the buildings, road network, and public transport in the cell, the radio technology being used, the type of cell in question, and the current prevailing meteorological conditions. The UE context includes such factors as the distance of each UE from the base station and the type of devices in question. The active service context is the number and type of end user service sessions running in the cell at a given instant.
Therefore, context is an important factor in the optimisation of end user service delivery in mobile networks. For example, user A is experiencing excellent service quality on the Long Term Evolution (LTE) network, for example, located in a town centre. However, user B, for example, may have a poor service experience because, even though they are in an area of excellent coverage, they may be in a building or surrounded by various obstructions. A third user, user C, for example, may experience poor service quality because of a rural location far from the nearest base station. User D may also be in a rural location but may experience excellent service because of being very close to a base station.
A cell in a Mobile Broadband Access network may be considered to be a discrete Cell Wireless Network in its own right. It is delivering a set of end user service sessions with its own unique individual context. The entire Mobile Broadband Access network is considered as an aggregated network, made up of Cell Wireless Networks. End user service sessions run in a plurality of Cell Wireless Network, with the Mobile Broadband Access network controlling details of what sessions run in which Cell Wireless Network, transfer of sessions between Cell Wireless Networks, and other functions such as addressing and routing.
Optimizing end user service delivery in a Mobile Broadband Access network is much more challenging than merely monitoring and analysing end user service delivery, for example as disclosed by Sterle, J., Volk, M., Sedlar, U., Bester, J. & Kos, A., “Application-Based NGN QoE Controller”, IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 49, no. 1, pp. 92-101, January 2011. With appropriate sample design, a network wide statistical approach can be applied to monitoring and analysis, which will give a good picture of how well services are being delivered in the network as a whole as disclosed, for example, by Soldani, D., “Means and Methods for Collecting and Analyzing QoE Measurements in Wireless Networks”, World of Wireless, Mobile and Multimedia Networks, 2006. WoWMoM 2006. International Symposium on a, pp. 5-pp. 535, July 2006. Indeed, with appropriate sampling, an accurate estimation of quality variations for parameters such as regions, service types, and user categories can be made, see for example, Groenendijk, J., Huang, Y. & Fallon, L., “Adaptive Terminal Reporting for Scalable Service Quality Monitoring in Large Networks”, Network and Service Management (CNSM), 2011 7th International Conference on, pp. 1-5, October 2011. Approaches that estimate end user service experience to optimise end user service sessions against service expectations disclosed, for example in Sterle, J., Volk, M., Sedlar, U., Bester, J. & Kos, A., “Application-Based NGN QoE Controller”, IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 49, no. 1, pp. 92-101, January 2011 and Latré, S., Simoens, P., de Vleeschauwer, B., de Meerssche, W. V., de Turck, F., Dhoedt, B., Demeester, P., van den Berghe, S. & de Lumley, E. G., “An Autonomic Architecture for Optimizing QoE in Multimedia Access Networks”, Computer Networks, vol. 53, no. 10, pp. 1587-1602, 2009, ignore the particular context in which each of those service sessions are being delivered. In order to correctly optimize end user service delivery in a Mobile Broadband Access network, experience aware optimization must be carried out at radio and network level as disclosed, for example, in Oyman, O. & Singh, S., “Quality of Experience for HTTP Adaptive Streaming Services”, IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 50, no. 4, pp. 20-27, April 2012.
In order to optimize the compliance with expectations of the set of end user service sessions running in a Cell Wireless Network, the context in which those services run may be modified. The UE context such as the position of a UE cannot be controlled by a management system. Although the radio context of a cell may be optimized to improve the bandwidth available by actions as changing antenna tilt, such actions do not operate at individual end user session level. The Quality of Service of service flows can be controlled using approaches such as the Policy Control and Charging Rule Function (PCRF) [3GPP. Policy and charging control (PCC); reference points. Technical Report 3GPP TS 29.212, 3GPP, December 2012], triggered using parameters on sessions from the radio network and packet inspection.
However, current approaches do not consider the Quality of Experience of individual sessions or the degree to which that quality of experience complies with expectations. Further, current approaches do not consider relationships between QoE across all the sessions running in a Cell Wireless Network at a given instant.